The Cowboy's Downfall: Small Town Contemporary Cowboy Romance
- Paula Altenburg
- Jun 8
- 2 min read
His first mistake…saying yes.
Retired bull rider Nix McCray savors his freedom riding the range. Let a woman run his life? Never again. Those days are behind him. When the Endeavour Ranch asks him to run a bull riding clinic for teens, he agrees. How much trouble can a group of kids be? No idea, but the uptight, hyper responsible older sister of a reckless seventeen-year girl sure becomes a burr in his side, disturbing his calm.
Self-assured lawyer Shauna Walsh has always followed the rules. When her flighty mother begs her to take her sister following the latest school expulsion, Shauna’s confident she can prevail. Wrong. She’s out of her depth. Worse, the amused, sexy cowboy running the rodeo clinic is everything she shouldn’t want, yet he has a super power over her once sleepy libido.
Soon, the unruly teenager determined to shock everyone is the least of Shauna and Nix’s problems. How can they explore the fire burning between them, yet keep the casual affair a secret in a rural community when they’re supposed to be setting a good example?
I had a lot of fun writing this story! Crafting dialogue is one of my favourite things.
But this book has a serious side to it, too. I'm a mother of boys, and I think my husband and I did an excellent job of raising them to respect and admire accomplished women. What we overlooked, however, is that women are human beings too, and not all human beings deserve our respect and admiration. When it comes to domestic abuse, women are also abusers. Their abuse tends to be more verbal and about seizing control--of social lives, of finances, of parenting.
Nix's ex-wife refuses to let him go. When her relationship with the man she left Nix for doesn't work out, she tries to work her way back into his life. He's been raised to treat women with respect, and he doesn't see his ex-wife's abuse--he only knows that she wears him down. As a former bull rider, he's far from weak. Women, however, are his kryptonite.
Enter Shauna, who is take-charge and accomplished, but who also knows the difference between a strong will and domestic abuse. Nix isn't married to her, so he doesn't have to agree with everything that she says. I loved writing the dialogue for this couple!
The Cowboy's Downfall is my 12th story set in Grand, Montana, a town I love. This small town cowboy romance releases in August 2025.
In the meantime, The Montana Sheriff--the first book in the Endeavour Ranch of Grand, Montana series--is on sale for 99 cents. Check it out here: The Montana Sheriff
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